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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29838528">Let Me Reach You (Wildcard)</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425'>Jen425</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Journey Through The Decade [27]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Kaizoku Sentai Gokaiger, Kamen Rider - All Media Types, Kamen Rider Decade, Super Sentai Series, Tokusatsu</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Grief/Mourning, M/M, Multi, Non-Human Kadoya Tsukasa</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-09</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 22:01:32</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>906</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29838528</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jen425/pseuds/Jen425</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Tsukasa stumbles back. Marvelous lowers his sword.</p><p>“Thought you told me it’d be healed up,” he says. “None of the Sentai are going to go easy on you.”</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Hikari Natsumi/Kadoya Tsukasa/Kaitou Daiki/Onodera Yuusuke, Kadoya Tsukasa &amp; Captain Marvelous, Kadoya Tsukasa/Kaitou Daiki</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>Journey Through The Decade [27]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1782217</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>10</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>13</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Let Me Reach You (Wildcard)</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>What with the Rider Times, I figured the side effects of Tsukasa losing two of his three tethers deserved further exploration</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Agh!”</p><p> </p><p>Tsukasa stumbles back. Marvelous lowers his sword.</p><p> </p><p>“Thought you told me it’d be healed up,” he says. “None of the Sentai are going to go easy on you.”</p><p> </p><p>“I can fight like it’s life or death,” Tsukasa replies, closing his Driver. “Better than you.”</p><p> </p><p>Alone, that is. Marvelous is used to fighting with a team. Tsukasa has fought as many times alone or with someone new as he has with… with…</p><p> </p><p>“Still,” Marvelous says, his suit falling away in turn. “You said you’d be healed up.”</p><p> </p><p>“I should be,” Tsukasa replies, though he has… suspicions.</p><p> </p><p>He’d felt it, so many people had reached for his existence. But they’re his core. Yuusuke, Natsumi, even Daiki. He couldn’t <em> be </em>, without them.</p><p> </p><p>And two of them are gone now.</p><p> </p><p>He’d passed off the exhaustion on that world as grief, and it probably was that in part. Slower movements in the second fight as being out of practice. But maybe it was a bit more than grief. Maybe it’s the facts of his existence.</p><p> </p><p>He could always fight a little better, was a little less overwhelmed by the Worlds, healed a little faster… he could be a little stronger when Daiki was home.</p><p> </p><p>Now, he’s lost two of his tethers. No wonder he’s tired, he’s healing and fighting slower.</p><p> </p><p>(No wonder the Worlds feel closer, like one wrong move could knock him down. The barrier keeping him as himself is… weak, now.)</p><p> </p><p>“Oi, Kadoya.”</p><p> </p><p>Tsukasa blinks. Right.</p><p> </p><p>“I should be fine in a real fight,” he says. “Why don’t you give me one?”</p><p> </p><p>Unfortunately, it seems thieves and pirates are fairly similar. In that Marvelous is blatantly going easy on him. And obviously wanting to ask questions.</p><p> </p><p>Afterwards they do what they usually do, get drunk enough to not be stupid and talk like the normal people they definitely aren’t. </p><p> </p><p>Marvelous does talk of his team, some. Annoyances belayed by his obvious fondness. Tsukasa never joins in, it’s still too fresh. But today, it’s too on his mind.</p><p> </p><p>“Natsumi’d never forgive me for this,” he says. Marvelous turns, surprise obvious. “She was upset when I left for a short time, but to join Dai-Shocker again…”</p><p> </p><p>Doesn’t matter that it was a fake out, she’d be angry. Tsukasa doesn’t know how he’d apologize.</p><p> </p><p>“Yuusuke’d be okay,” he continues. “All understanding, no one’s really gonna die. He’d be glad I was back, though, and Kaitou… that thief could go either way. I miss…”</p><p> </p><p>He trails off.</p><p> </p><p>“Got some demons in there?” Marvelous asks. Tsukasa shrugs, keeping his face blank so it doesn’t crumble.</p><p> </p><p>“Everyone does,” he replies. “It’s all about what we choose to do with them. I’m a Kamen Rider, that’ll always mean more pain than you Sentai.”</p><p> </p><p>That always means choosing to protect others despite your own suffering, despite the nature of your powers.</p><p> </p><p>Or your existence.</p><p> </p><p>So he supposes he’ll just have to learn to survive with nothing but his web of friends and… well, Daiki. Untethered, he wonders what effects it’ll have.</p><p> </p><p>“I guess so,” Marvelous says. “We’ll see what happens.”</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>It’s after this that Tsukasa tries to find Daiki.</p><p> </p><p>It’s also after this that he realizes these powers are another thing left changed, almost collapsing from the overwhelm of the Worlds.</p><p> </p><p>(He doesn’t look for Daiki again, after that.)</p><p><br/>
<br/>
<br/>
</p><p>Daiki might go either way, is what Tsukasa had said.</p><p> </p><p>Well, it seems like this, he’s leaning towards opposing him. Those impulses to help that Tsukasa knows Daiki both loathes and could never be without.</p><p> </p><p>Tsukasa wants to try to reach out, to explain his plans. He was angry before, but now… now, it’d be better, to have Daiki by his side. It’s hard, and now that he knows it’s there he <em> feels </em> the slight strength filling him at Daiki’s proximity.</p><p> </p><p>“You’re as big a villain as they come,” he says. “Kaitou.”</p><p> </p><p>(There’s a girl there, OOO’s friend, he believes, and he knows there are Mooks watching from every side. He can’t just ask.)</p><p> </p><p>Daiki merely smiles, laughs. It’s attempting casual. But it fails. Tsukasa can read him, too.</p><p> </p><p>“I figured you’d notice me, Tsukasa,” he says. “You always come for me in my moment of need.”</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Tell me what’s going on. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Tsukasa keeps his gaze on OOO’s friend, on nothing. Away from the watchers that he knows abound.</p><p> </p><p>“And whenever I try to do anything, you always throw a wrench in the works,” he replies. “I think you need to get a life.”</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> I can’t. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>“That’s good, coming from you.”</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> You’re the one who left. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>That last one is almost too targeted, too cruel. Surely Daiki understands… oh.</p><p> </p><p>Daiki’s holding up his camera. He’d gone <em> home </em>, and he’d… he thinks Tsukasa means this. </p><p> </p><p>“Weren’t you going to capture your world on film?” Daiki asks, meeting his gaze. “Well, ‘Great Leader’?”</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Are you falling so far, you hypocrite? </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Tsukasa wants to punch him at the implication. He wants to pull him in and kiss him senseless. He wants to deny it.</p><p> </p><p>“Kaitou, I want you on my side,” is what he says.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Please. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>“I’m afraid,” Daiki says. “I prefer being free as the wind.”</p><p> </p><p>“I see,” Tsukasa says. It’s not enough. Daiki doesn’t understand, and Tsukasa’s too far in, he has to stop this… this incredible danger. “Well then… get out of my sight.”</p><p> </p><p>It’s the call for his forces to move.</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> She’d hate this. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> He’d forgive you. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Empty imaginings. There’s no going back to what was.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Find me on Tumblr @flaim-ita or @dancingqueen-mai for just Toku edits</p></blockquote></div></div>
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